In My Time of Need
by Picklesquidly The Warlock
Summary: Kiku Honda's life as a high-schooler isn't working out well for him. But at the time when he feels like he needs someone the most, a certain person named Alfred Jones may be the one to save him.


In My Time of Need

Ch 1

Kiku's hands shook in fear and frustration, struggling to hold his folders and books still in his hand. He pressed himself against the painted wall of the hallway, unable to hold back shuddering breaths as three malevolent figures loomed over him, wearing wide, cruel grins.

"Look, he's shaking! What a pathetic scaredy-cat."

"Meow! Does the kitty need a bowl of milk?"

"What a fucking son of a bitch!"

Kiku cried out as one of the bullies threw aside his binders out of his hands, sending his notes flying and scattering.

"Stupid nerd! Why don't you just go as write some more homework?"

"Where are your glasses, nerd?"

As the smaller teen tried to reach down to try and recollect all of his fallen folders, one of the older boys stopped down the snatch them up. He waved them infront of Kiku tauntingly, dark crimson eyes widened in enjoyment. "Looking for this?"

"Give it back!" The Asian boy squeaked, reaching up in vain to try and take back his notebooks. "Just stop it! Leave me alone!"

"As if!" Smirking widely with that horrific smile, one of the boys passed the notes back towards one of his lackeys. "You're just a little bitch that needs to learn his place."

The offending student then grabbed onto Kiku's shoulder, surprising the smaller teen for a moment, giving him to chance to react.

Right then, the bully slammed Kiku straight into the wall with heavy force, knocking the air out of his lungs and sending him falling to his knees on the ground, coughing and gasping.

"Don't be so surprised," the other sneered. "That's the least that a fucking faggot like you deserves!"

His assaultant on the other hand seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, laughing along with his other followers.

"Oi! Lets beat the lights out of him! See how long he lasts." One of them called.

"G-Gilbert, wait."

Quickly, one of the people that hung behind the silver-haired boy stepped forward, looking down at Kiku nervously. In turn, the gangs ringleader, Gilbert, was glaring harshly at the student next to him. "What is it, Alfred?"

From the floor Kiku looked up, still clutching his sides to subdue the throbbing pain.

Alfred F. Jones.

Alfred was a tall, messy-haired blonde, marked by his cowlick, and a pretty popular person at the school. He was another one of those guys who tagged along with Gilbert, but he didn't seem to follow in as much with what Gilbert did. Kiku had a strange, tentative suspicion of this particular boy.

Alfred began to speak lowly by Gilbert's ear, visibly a little bit agitated. "There's a teacher coming down the hallway. Schools about to start anyways."

Gilbert returned his gaze to Kiku, glaring at the smaller student hatefully, contemplating if he should go or not.

"Gilbert..."

"C'mon, lets bail." He said finally, narrowing his eyes at Kiku. "Don't think we're done with you yet."

The ringleader turned around swiftly and began to storm away, the others following after him closely.

Kiku watched as the gang left, making sure they were gone.

Then he looked down the other end of the hallway.

There was no teacher there.

Kiku decided to skip first period that day.

There were several vacant classrooms in the school that weren't ever used during the school year, usually only for storage. Kiku found this to be a good place to sit tight for a while, since usually no one ever visited those areas. Quickly, when he made sure there was no one around, the student slipped through a hallway and into one of the rooms, and sat down in the far corner of the classroom, tossing his folders aside. He could calm down here for a little while.

When Kiku tried to sit back against the wall, he flinched heavily and sat straight back up, rubbing the back of his shoulder painfully. He must've bruised it pretty bad when Gilbert shoved him into the wall.

Unfortunately for Kiku, this wasn't the first injury he had recieve from the constant harassment.

The raven-haired boy rolled up one of the sleeves of his shirt, revealing another bruise on his arm. That one nearly broke his wrist.

A cut on his calf.

Scratches on the side of his face.

Kiku bit his lip, pulling the sleeve back down to hide the dark bruises on his forearm. This kind of thing should never happen, to anybody. What did he ever do to deserve this kind of treatment? His body quivered as tears began to fall from his eyes, rolling down his cheeks and dripping onto the floor.

Dismayed, Kiku brought up his hand to wipe away the flowing tears. Maybe he was always bullied because he was such a crybaby. He felt worthless, like garbage, a burden to society; he felt like he should die.

This was all because of Gilbert.

Gilbert was a popular jock at the school. well known, tall, good in sports, and had a lot of followers; he was everything Kiku wasn't. The silver-haired boy seemed to find Kiku as a personal favorite for harassment. From what he could remember, it All started at the beginning of the school year, when Kiku was a new student at this high school. He couldn't really ever understand why it was him that was always picked on, maybe because he was a "nerd," or because of his status as a new kid. Either way, it didn't change the fact that Gilbert absolutely loathed Kiku, and did anything he possibly was able to do in order to make the younger boy's life a complete living hell.

That wasn't even the worst of it.

Naturally, at first Gilbert's taunts and derision were mostly limited to verbal mockery, something that eventually Kiku learned to block out and ignore. That was until something began to change; for the worst, on Kiku's part. He assumed it was because of Gilbert's frustration that his taunting wasn't affecting the younger student. It all started with that time when the silver-haired boy tripped him on the stairs after class; and it only got even more physical after that. Now it wasn't uncommon for Kiku to bear multiple bruises and scratches.

And Kiku never had the heart to tell anyone about any of these problems. He felt afraid to open his secret, so he would always grin and bear it, always using excuses, like "I tripped," or "My cat scratched me."

He hoped no one noticed.

Just then, the school bell rang, echoing loudly through the hallway. Second period already. Kiku frowned and heaved himself onto his feet, rubbing his eyes with his hands. It was no use to skip out on another period; he couldn't miss all of his assignments after all. Gathering himself together, Kiku gabbed his folders and headed out the door, trying to push away all of his emotions that burdened him.

Second period was art class. Kiku was grateful for it; art was something that he found to be very relaxing and calm. And the best part; Gilbert wasn't here.

Breathing in deeply, Kiku walked in, ignoring the sparse, questioning stares from a couple of the students who shared classes with him during first period. This time he selected a seat closer to the back of the classroom, pulling out his sketchbook to get to work on his drawing. Unfortunately, he did not notice the other student that entered the classroom and took a seat right next to him.

"Hey... Um... Kiku..."

The raven-haired boy stiffened, training his hard gaze on his paper, ignoring the person next to him as best as he could.

"Kiku?"

He gripped his pencil tightly, trying to pretend that he didn't see the other boy.

"Kiku! Oi, listen to me will ya?"

Huffing, Kiku finally dropped his pencil and looked up with apprehensive eyes.

Alfred, the taller boy who sat by Kiku, sat up a bit at his classmate's stiff tone. He tried to smile (albeit nervously) and twiddled around with his pencil.

"U-Um... You weren't, uh, here, for first period... Where were you?"

Kiku winced at Alfred's nosy question, looking back down on his paper and picking up his pencil again, resuming his drawing. This time Kiku gave no reply to the blonde.

"H-Hey, Kiku, I was just worried that... I dunno..."

"Why are you here?" Kiku replied quiveringly, clutching his pencil stiffly as he stared down at his drawing papers. Seeing how tense he was, Alfred bet that if he suddenly slammed his hand down on the table, it would send the shorter boy racing out of the room.

"I was just wondering why you weren't at first per-"

"You know very well why I wasn't."

Alfred pursed his lips and shuffled in his chair nervously. "Listen man, sorry that Gil-"

"'Sorry' doesn't cut it." Kiku finally snapped, his voice strained by anger and sadness. he slammed his sketchbook closed and gathered all of his pencils together. "Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to go somewhere away from you so I might be able to get out of class today without a broken arm!"

Kiku stormed out of his seat and instead went to the other side of class, completely ignoring Alfred from that point on.

Alfred just stared helplessly as the other student abruptly left.

"What did I do...?"


End file.
